Sunday, 17 July 2011

Otto von Habsburg (1912 - 2011)

Yesterday I was amongstthethousandsofresidentsandvisitorsliningtherouteofthekilometerlongfuneralprocessionofthe man theycallthe last EmperorofAustria.

Otto von Habsburg was never an Austrianemperor, except in manypeople's hearts. ThefamilywerebanishedfromtheirhomelandafterthefirstWorld War and the Deutsch-Östereich Republic (the Republic of German Austria) was proclaimed. Habsburg property was confiscatedandthefamily was deportedon a BritishNavalshiptothePortugueseislandofMadeira. Andit was therethattheyoung Otto, attheageof 9, witnessedhisfather's death. The last emperor, Emperor Karl, was a victimoftheSpanishflupandemic.

The Deutsch-ÖstereichRepublicsoondegeneratedinto an Austro-FacistStatemodeledonMussolini's Italianversion. A self-exiledyoung man called Adolf Hitler, whohadservedas a runner in FranceduringthefirstWorld War was meanwhilebusilywritingMein Kampf (MyStruggle). It was a bookthat Otto von Habsburg readclosely. Andhavingreadithe observed thattheauthor, an avid reader of Karl May cowboy books, had a struggle, amongst other things, withtheGermanlanguage.

TheGermanscrossedintoAustria over the River Danube at Passau, a small town where Hitler's fatherhadservedas a customsofficial. Therewas noattempt on the Austrian side tomake even a tokengestureofdefiancesuchasblowingupthebridge at Passau.

TheinvasionofAustria was codenamedOperation Otto. The man afterwhomit was named was placedon a Nazi Death List. He made his way to Paris andorganized a resistancefromthere.

In 1942 when Hitler's Nazis stoodatthegatesof Paris, Otto von Habsburg fledtothe USA andcontinuedtorallysupport. He hadmanymeetingswithPresident Roosevelt and was an admirerofWinston Churchill. He also travelled to many countries and obtained thousands of visas for fleeing Austrians.

Whentheinhabitantsof the newly created Ostmark wokeuptorealitytheydiscoveredthatthe Austrian National Bank hadbeenplunderedofitsgold, thattheirland was a landof Nazi DeathCampsandthattheirfinestyoungmenwere in German uniform andmarchingtocertaindeath in theEast. It was thenightmarescenariopredictedby Otto von Habsburg.

During theCold War Otto von Habsburg was oneofthemainorganizersofthe so-called SopronPicnic - an event which enabled hundredsofEastGermanscrossedtheHungarianborderintoAustria. It was an event which wouldleadtothefallofthe Berlin Wall.

Otto von Habsburg was also an important and influential European and a longtime prominent member of the European Parliament. It was therefore most fitting that they came in large numbers from the old lands of the Habsburg Monarchy - Bohemia, Moravia etc., - what many people today call the first European Union - to Vienna. In their national costumes they were at the requiem and in the funeral procession.

I shall always remember and treasure my memories of Otto von Habsburg whom I met at a book presentation in 2008. I found him to be a man of qualities. He was charming, perceptive, and intelligent. There was nothing two-edged or fuzzy about him. We spoke on equal terms - one to the other. Here, I felt, was a man you could trust.

Yes, that's right. It's a family tradition to have bits and pieces buried in different places. The Hungarians will like this because of the Sopron Picnic event to open the Iron Curtain that he was involved in.